Patrick Wadden
Exeter College
Supervisor: Professor Thomas Charles-Edwards
Thesis title:
Irish ethnographic literature of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
Research Interests
My doctoral research is focused on examining Irish interest in the history and identity of foreign peoples during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This period of Irish history was characterised by intense communication between the Irish and their neighbours, both within the British Isles and farther afield. It was also a period of intense literary activity in Ireland as the study of a more ‘scientific’ form of history gained popularity and was harnessed by those who desired to espouse a kingship of all Ireland. The aim of my research is to examine how each of these processes affected the other; how the depiction of foreign peoples in Irish literature was influenced both by contemporary relations with them and also by the theories utilized by Irish propagandists to promote the unity of the Irish people.
My other academic interests are concerned with similar themes, including the emergence of national identities amongst the peoples of the British Isles, Irish depictions of foreign peoples during the early medieval period and the politics of the Irish Sea zone during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Publications
- ‘The ‘first’ English invasion: the impact and effects of the Northumbrian attack on Brega, 684’, Ríocht na Midhe 21 (2010, forthcoming).
- ‘Irish perceptions of the Normans in the eleventh and twelfth centuries’, in S. Duffy (ed.), The first English Empire? (forthcoming).